Over the Rainbow Tutorial

Pennie Pins over a flicker requested a tutorial for my Over the Rainbow Quilts :)  Here you go, Pennie!  Happy quilting!!  Please ask any questions you may have down in the comments.  I will answer them there :)

This is the first one I designed for my daughter Kate.  It is a twin size quilt.  Blogged HERE

My sisters Aly's quilt (king size), requested to be just like Kate's.  Blogged HERE

For both of these quilts I started with a jelly roll of Piece O' Cake's Treasures and Tidbits by Robert Kaufman.  For Kate's quilt I used one jelly roll and for Aly's I used 3 jelly rolls, but ended up making three matching euro shams too ;)

The first thing you need to do is decide how big you want your blocks.

My blocks ended up being 10" square.  Any square size will work with this layout.

To make 10" squares using a jelly roll, you will need to arrange your 2.5" strips into groups of four that coordinate.  (For the "Over the Rainbow" quilts, you can see I put like colors with like colors, with the darkest color furthest away from the white).

(for demo sake, I have used these cheery-not-so-matching jelly roll strips)

In order to get a "zigzag" design and and make my block square, I added a 2.5" by wof (width of fabric) white strip to each block.

Next you will sew your strip sets together, one white with four colored strips.  You will end up with a 42" by 10.5" strip set.  Press well.

Back side, all pressed and happy :)  (Pay no mind to my gingham ironing board cover :\)

Right side pressed & pretty.

Now for the trimming :)  You will need to trim the strip set down to four,10" squares.

*** Take note, if you have sewn perfect 1/4" seams, you will have an extra 1/2" (note size of strip set 42"x 10.5")  You could have cut your white to only 2" wide by wof if you are perfect and confident that your seams are precise.  I prefer to use a 2.5" wide white strip so I will have a little wiggle room, so my blocks can be trimmed perfectly to 10" square.

ALSO!!!  Be sure to cut your strip set apart into ten inch sections first.  As pictured below.

Line up your bottom edge on your cutting mat.  Trim off the selvage edges.

Slide your ruler over to cut at the 10" mark and trim.

(The angle of the picture makes the block look curvy, but it's not ;)

Next, trim the white strip side of the block to make the block 10" square.  You want all of your printed/colored strips to remain the same size as each other.  Your white strip is where all of the trimming should take place :) ...as pictured below...

Ta-da, a 10" block :)

Now for the layout.  This will take some time if you are using a jelly roll and want your colors to end up in a design.

Clear off your living room floor and start playing with the layout.  If you want a "zigzag', you just need to rotate the direction of your white (or solid) strip.  I have a picture of what I am going for next to me as I lay out the blocks, to help with the layout.

Once they are perfect... or pretty good ;), sew up your rows, and then sew up your rows :)  Press well.

I decided for Kate's that the quilt needed to be larger, so I added a wide white border to make it twin size.  For Aly's I added white borders to make the quilt fit her extra tall king size mattress.

Then quilt and bind as desired :)

Happy sewing :)